Emling Shelley - Marie Curie and her daughters : the private lives of sciences first family

Praise for Marie Curie and Her Daughters

A must-read for every woman and every female teenager. In accessible prose, Emling enlightens the world about this enigmatic scientist, and, with the help of personal letters shared by Curies granddaughter, Emling has woven a story of a woman full of grace and of the daughters who loved her without fail. I loved this book.

Mary H. Manhein, author of

The Bone Lady and Trail of Bones

Shelley Emlings dazzling chronicle of the three Curies and their world-famous accomplishments is surpassed only by her account of how each stretched her eras concept of the possibilities for women. A tour de force!

Megan McKinney, author of The Magnificent Medills

Ms. Emlings riveting new biography reveals in page-turning prose the life-balance struggles of a true genius. Its a tip of the hat to the private Marie, the single working mother, whose many accomplishments include her two amazing daughters.

Lisa Verge Higgins, New York Journal of Books

Shelley Emlings excellent joint biography of Marie, her daughters (and a granddaughter, too) is an exhilarating story that couples scientific discovery and motherhood. A book that should propel young women into science for the sheer fun of it, its also a rich tale of war and peace, family commitment, friendship, and medical progress.

Adele Glimm, author of Gene Hunter and Rachel Carson

MARIE CURIE

and Her

DAUGHTERS

MARIE CURIE

and Her

DAUGHTERS

THE PRIVATE LIVES
OF SCIENCES
FIRST FAMILY

SHELLEY EMLING

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MARIE CURIE AND HER DAUGHTERS

Copyright Shelley Emling, 2012.

All rights reserved.

For information, address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the U.S.a division of St. Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

ISBN: 978-0-230-11571-2

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Greg Collins

First edition: August 2012

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America.

This book is dedicated with love to my son Chris, who is so much more than I was at his age.

It is also dedicated to girls and women everywhere who are studyingor are already succeeding inthe fields of math and science.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The first time I ever heard from Hlne Langevin-Joliot was via email on January 3, 2011. Opening up my inbox, I did a double take as I glanced down and noticed the name of the granddaughter of one of the most famous women who ever lived. She was writing to say that shed be available to meet with me the week of April 18. I was over the moon. When I did finally meet with her at the Marie Curie Institute in Paris that week, I was as starstruck as if I were meeting the president. She was as kind and helpful and gracious as she possibly could have been. She made sure I knew that her grandmother never sought to succeed in a male-dominated arena; rather, she simply loved science above everything else. I want to thank her for sharing her insights about her family and also about Americas impact on her grandmother. She referred me to a selection of more than two hundred letters, in French, exchanged between Marie Curie and her daughters as well as to other papers and documents including eighty-eight pages of Irene Curies own remembrances, also in French. Langevin-Joliot has had those letters published in France in a book titled Marie-Curie et ses filles: Lettres.

I also want to thank Renaud Huynh, director of the Curie Institute, for offering his own insights and for answering all my pesky questions. And thanks to Jocelyn Wilk and other employees for their assistance at the Columbia University Archives.

Personally Id like to thank my agent, the indefatigable Agnes Birnbaum. Thank you to my incredible editor at Palgrave Macmillan, Luba Ostashevsky, who patiently helped me better grasp the art of narrative history. Also thanks to Laura Lancaster, Victoria Wallis, and Georgia Maas, and others at Palgrave for all their hard work on my behalf.

There is no way I could have completed this book without some extremely talented French translators. Thank you to Florence Sinofsky, Louis Gagnon, Isabelle de Carville, and, especially Kim Parkash. Kim, in particular, worked tirelessly to translate letter after letter for me. If there are any errors in this book, they are mine and mine alone.

Thank you also to my bosses at AOL Patch for granting me a leave of absence.

Over the years, the Curies have garnered the attention of countless writers who have meticulously researched the lives of the various family members. Without them, it would be impossible for someone like me to tell my own story of the Curie women in my own way. They include Denis Brian, Barbara Goldsmith, Sarah Dry, Robert Reid, Naomi E. Pasachoff, Susan Quinn, Rosalynd Pflaum, Michel Pinault, Maurice Goldsmith and, of course, Eve Curie, who wrote a wonderful biography of her mother and also an astonishing book about her adventures as a World War II correspondent. Alan E. Waltar wrote a fascinating book on radiation and modern life. And Marie Curie wrote a biography of her husband that included a short autobiography.

I am indebted to my husband, Scott, for reading every chapter. His intelligence never ceases to amaze me. My appreciation also goes to my three gorgeous children, Chris, Ben, and Olivia, who always showed an interest in the books progress. I promised them I would thank Peppermy constant companionas well. Thanks to my girlfriends who bring me such joy. And a special thanks to my mother, Lois Ruth. She was, every day of her life, my greatest cheerleader.

Finally, I drew so much inspiration from five womenMarie Curie, Irene Curie, Eve Curie, Missy Meloney, and Hlne Langevin-Joliotwho had and have many wonderful qualities. But the quality I love most is that none of them evereverwaited for something to happen to them. They made things happen for themselves. My hope is that girls and women everywhere will do the same.

PROLOGUE

America

A Fresh Point of Departure for the Worlds Greatest Scientist

The faint outline of New York City emerged through a haze of warm weather on the morning of May 11, 1921, as the RMS Olympic steamed its way into New York Harbor, the last leg of its weeks-long journey across the Atlantic. On board was the worlds most famous scientist, Madame Marie Curie, accompanied by an unlikely companion, a feisty American journalist named Missy Meloney. Meloney had warned Marie that a mob of reporters and photographers would be gathered on the landing pier, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the one they dubbed the benefactress of the human race. Marie, frail and mortified by publicity, took her time making an appearance before a crowd that had already been waiting a good five hours. Finally, Meloney managed to set her up comfortably in a giant armchairlike a queen on a throneon the boat deck of the ship.